Best Knight for the Job
by Christy W
Summary: Someone earns one of the Swords of the Cross


Title: The Best Knight for the Job  
Author: Christy  
Rating: FR 15  
Fandom/Theme: Buffy/Dresden Files  
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters featured here. They belong to their respective creators and production companies.  
Distribution: and TtH  
Spoilers: None for Buffy; Right after "Ghost Story" for Dresden  
Challenge: Response to Challenge #3190 "White Knight of the Cross"  
FFA Pairing: Xander Harris/Harry Dresden  
Summary: Someone earns one of the Swords of the Cross

I was still reeling from all the machinations my wonderful Godmother Mab had done. I was slowly adjusting to an apprentice that was more comfortable hiding in the shadows of my new apartment than interacting much with me, Murph, Thomas- hell, even Mouse moped around her! I must say, though, having a remorseful brother willing to set you up in a new place is always nice, though I did insist on another basement type setup. The wards and defenses are a LOT easier then, plus less chance of some nasty from the Never Never tossing me out the window of a highrise. I mean, yeah, I survived dying once, but, just between you and me, I'm in no hurry to repeat that experience anytime soon- thanks so much. And since I finally had a little free time, now that the hubbub of my resurrection had died down, Bob and I were cataloging all my stuff Murph, Thomas and the rest of my friends had managed to salvage. I was going through what few books had survived, remembering the disintegration of my wonderful cloak when I noticed something VERY important was missing- _Amoracchius_- Michael's former Sword of the Cross.

"Bob, where's the Sword?" I asked calmly, staring at the skull as its "eyes" pinwheeled towards the ivory handle of Shiro's sword.

"Harry, it's right there- next to you," he told me, a not of hesitation in his voice.

"Not Shiro's, Bob- Michael's."

"Um, uh yeah, about that- Michael said he had a dream where he was told another White Knight needed it more for _his_ fight than we did right now, but that, when the time was right, he'd return with it to help us. Look, Harry, all I know is one day we all woke up and it was just gone. Nobody'd disturbed the wards, nothin'."

I sighed as I stood up and stretched, glancing over at my half rebuilt model of Chicago. "I know you couldn't go looking for it back when I was missing in action, but what about now?"

"Well, considering my past allegiances, I'm not sure He'll let me find it, but I can help you with a way for **you** to look for it," Bob told me.

Cracking my knuckled as I shrugged my robe on, I picked the skull up and headed down to my lab.

******

"Not even in this dimension?! How do we even know there's a way to get everyone back in one piece?" I demanded, glaring at Bob as I glanced back at the results of Bob's spell- a piece of paper with a date, coordinates and a name. _Xander Harris. Poor kid, to have his parents name him that,_ I thought as I rummaged for a world atlas to try and figure out where this kid was who needed the Sword more. Bob peeked up from the paper to the map and back again before laughing.

"What the hell's so funny?" I demanded as Mister, who'd been lounging on the top shelf in the lab, sent one baleful glare at the laughing skull and sauntered back upstairs.

"Harry, he's in Chicago, out by MacNally's, if I'm not mistaken," he informed me with a snort. "Should be fun getting him back here."

******

In the end, the kid found us. I'd gone into Mac's. Bob safe in my backpack, when I saw a slightly younger looking version of me, lounging back and sipping one of Mac's Finest. Well, he would've looked like me when I was younger if he didn't have the scars down his cheek and the missing sword I was looking for. He stood up and held out his hand to shake as I got closer. "You must be Harry- I'm Xander. A seer friend of mine back home told me that you might be looking for me and my little friend her."

I shook his hand, avoiding his Soul Gaze and indicated a smaller, out of the way table we could chat at without being too disturbed. "So why were you deemed needed in our fight?" I asked bluntly, having already discussed my concerns about no one here having been worthy of the Sword with Bob the night before.

"Because we needed it to fight a Hell Goddess," he stated back just as bluntly, then paused for a moment as Mac set two more bottles down in front of us. "My best friend, Buffy, is a mystical warrior in my home dimension called the Slayer- one girl in all the world to defend against vampires, demons and other assorted beasties. So, this group of monks found out Glory, the Hell Goddess, wanted to harness the power of the Key, which is an interdimensional portal opening kinda deal, to disintegrate the walls between all the dimensions. So they sent the Key, in human form, to Buffy as her sister to keep her safe. What we didn't realize until later was that, besides Buffy's essence to create this little human case for the Key, they also needed male essence and apparently, I was elected."

I took a sip of my beer before pointing it towards him. "How does all this come into how you got the Sword or even how you got here to this dimension?"

"Well, Glory found out Dawn was the Key and kidnapped her, while her minions built a tower for the ritual. A couple nights later, I had this weird ass dream where someone asked me if I was ready to live up to my name as the White Knight. I said yes and when I woke up, I had the Sword. We managed to get to Glory and I used this sword to kill her, but the portal was already opened and only the blood that flowed through the Key could close it. And since I knew the rest of the Scooby Gang needed Buffy alive and fighting the good fight, I jumped to close the rift- sword and all. I woke up in the alley behind this place and had just come in and sat down when you got here," Xander finished, taking a big swig of his drink.

I sat back for a moment, sipping my own drink and thinking on what he'd told me. "Wait a sec- what about this seer you said told you about me?" I asked.

"Yeah. Cordelia- my first girlfriend from high school. She works with a vampire with a soul we all knew in high school- she gets visions of people Angel needs to help out in LA. She called me out of the blue a couple weeks before all this shit happened, telling me she'd seen me in Chicago, helping a wizard called Harry Dresden. She described what you looked like and said that you had a pet sidekick, er a skull named Bob is what she said," he explained.

"Oh, did someone call me?" Bob called out, though muffled by my bag. Rolling my eyes and pull him out, I placed him on the table so he could see Xander.

"Hells Bells, Harry, when you get help, you get the serious ones!" he exclaimed. "The One Who Sees! Shit."

Xander looked a little bemused as he stared at my other assistant. "Yeah, Cordy told me some in the demon community still call me that," he said softly.

I think I realized then that, much like I'd felt cut off from everyone when Mab had manufactured my "death", this kid was well and truly on his own now. Hells bells, I knew it might backfire on me, but I knew I'd still be here to help out this floundering new Knight. Hell, he'd need to talk to Michael and Charity too. Whoa boy.


End file.
